


breathe in, breathe out

by walkthegale



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-26 00:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16209269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkthegale/pseuds/walkthegale
Summary: Keyleth’s second kiss is is nothing like her first.





	breathe in, breathe out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silly_cleo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_cleo/gifts).



> A treat for silly_cleo.
> 
> Set roughly some time around campaign 1 episodes 40-42. Ignoring all canon pairings for fun and profit.
> 
> Huge thanks to cosmic_llin and shinyjenni for awesome last minute beta work!

Keyleth’s first kiss is Kashaw. She thinks she likes it but it happens very quickly and afterwards she’s not really sure. He’s certainly a handsome man, and he was nice to her, and the kiss itself wasn’t unpleasant.

She thinks about it a lot later on, touching her hand to her lips and trying to recall every detail. The scent of him, and the exact feel of his lips on hers, and how her heart raced at the surprise of it all. It was definitely nice, she concludes, but all the same, she finds she’s left feeling a little bit… hollow. It was her first kiss, and that’s something that has happened to her now, but she can’t help but wonder if maybe it could have been something more.

Keyleth’s second kiss is Vex’ahlia, and it’s nothing like the first at all.

Everything has been so busy and so exhausting recently and they barely had time to take a breath after all the things that happened in Whitestone and now there are _dragons_  and people have _died_ and everyone keeps disagreeing and she’s just… she doesn’t know what she is really but it’s too much.

Keyleth loves their home dearly but suddenly she can’t bear to be inside stone walls for another second.

Outside, in the grounds, with fresh, clean air in her lungs and the sun in the sky above her, Keyleth takes deep, gulping breaths and tells herself she’s only imagining that she can smell smoke in the distance still.

There’s a tree that’s hers, a little distance from the keep. One that Keyleth has always loved especially. There’s no real reason to love it more than the other trees, but she does - she loves the particular shades of green in its leaves, and the knots and whorls of the bark, and the way the branches twist against the sky. It calms her, helps her feel grounded.

She heads for it now, wants to put her hand on the trunk of it and feel the life humming under her fingertips. She gets quite close before she realises she isn’t alone.

Sitting in the grass, tucked in and almost invisible amongst the tree’s roots, is Vex’ahlia.

Vex jumps to her feet when she spots Keyleth, gives her an embarrassed sort of wave, and wipes her face surreptitiously, like she thinks it’s possible that Keyleth won’t notice that her eyes are red and puffy and the colour is high on her cheeks.

“Vex?” Keyleth asks when she reaches her. “Has something happened?”

“Oh no, darling, I’m fine.” Vex’s answer comes quickly, tripping off her tongue with practiced ease. “Nothing to worry about. What are you doing out here? If you’re looking for Percy, I saw him heading for his workshop not long ago…”

Keyleth ignores how ridiculous it would be to go looking for Percy in the garden without checking the workshop first. “No, I… I wasn’t looking for anyone, really. I wanted to be outside.”

“And you wanted to be alone,” Vex finishes for her, speaking too fast still. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

“No!” Keyleth surprises herself with the vehemence of her answer. She tries to temper it. “You were here first. And I don’t want you to leave.” The words are out of her mouth before she’s had time to think twice about them.

She looks at Vex properly then, sees the dark circles and the smeared remains of tear tracks under her eyes. She recognises the look in Vex’s eyes, is pretty sure it’s mirrored in her own. “Vex…” she says again, struggling to find the right thing to say.

“It’s ok, Kiki.” Vex’s voice is softer this time, and Keyleth wonders what Vex saw in her face just now. “I’m ok. I’m just tired.”

“Me too.”

“We’re all tired. We’ll figure it all out though and we’ll be all right.” Vex doesn’t sound like she believes herself, but Keyleth appreciates the effort.

“I don’t know what we should do,” she finds herself saying. “I don’t know what’s best.” She hears her voice getting higher. “And we keep almost dying, which really doesn’t help!”

Vex lets out a sound that’s almost a laugh. “No, you’re right, darling, that doesn’t help at all.” She reaches out and takes Keyleth’s hand. “We’ll figure it out,” she repeats, with a little more conviction than last time. “Between all of us, and all the other brilliant people who want to fix this, we’ll come up with something. We’re not dead yet.”

Keyleth clings on to Vex’s hand, puts her other hand on the tree to steady herself, and breathes. “We’re not dead yet,” she says, as much to herself as to Vex.

She looks at Vex again, and all she can think is that she doesn’t remember the last time she saw Vex smile. A real smile, not one carefully constructed to get what she wants. Keyleth misses seeing Vex smile.

She concentrates, draws a little energy from the tree, and conjures a small, blue flower in her hand, which she gives to Vex.

For a moment, Vex just looks at the flower she’s now holding, her other hand still in Keyleth’s, and she’s silent for long enough that Keyleth starts to feel like maybe that was a very silly gesture. What’s a flower going to do, on a day like today?

But then, she notices, the corners of Vex’s mouth turn up, and she’s smiling, just a little. It’s beautiful. _Vex_ is beautiful.

“Thank you, Keyleth,” she says, quietly.

They’re standing very close, Keyleth realises, and Vex’s gaze, dark and gleaming, is locked onto her. Keyleth so often doesn’t think before she acts, and this is no different. She doesn’t think at all, she just leans forward and kisses Vex on the mouth.

Keyleth’s second kiss is nothing like her first. This time, Keyleth is in control.

She kisses Vex and Vex’s mouth is hot and yielding under her own, and she tastes like Vex and she smells like Vex and it’s really, really good. No, it’s incredible. But then Vex’s hand tightens around Keyleth’s and Keyleth pulls back, just a little, because she didn’t ask Vex if Vex wanted this too.

Vex’s smile, warm and genuine, answers her. Vex reaches up, puts her hand on the nape of Keyleth’s neck, and pulls her back in for another kiss, deep and sweet and not like anything Keyleth has ever felt before. She makes a little sound of wanting in the back of her throat and then Vex is kissing her harder, and Keyleth’s tongue finds its way into Vex‘s mouth and Vex sighs and presses herself against Keyleth and it’s all new and it all feels amazing, and Keyleth can’t get enough of any of it.

Keyleth’s second kiss is Vex’ahlia, and so is her third and her fourth and fifth, and some time after that she loses count. She notices though, when she pauses for breath, that Vex is still smiling, and Keyleth realises that she’s smiling too.

There’s a lot going on, and so much of it is terrible, but she’s kissing Vex under a tree with the sun shining overhead, and that helps. That definitely helps.


End file.
